Blue White Illustrated

GAME GRADES QUARTERBACKS Christian Hacken- berg's opening drive appeared promis- ing, but it ended with an overthrown pass in the end zone that Michigan State intercepted. That was somewhat illustrative of his day. There were bright spots – he finished with 257 yards on 22 completions and two touchdowns – but every time he seemed to find a groove, an overthrow, or a debilitating sack, bumped him out of it. Hacken- berg's attempted screen pass in traffic late in the fourth quarter, which was picked and returned for six points, was salt in the wound. GRADE C RUNNING BACKS Saquon Barkley got off to a hot start, dragging defenders into scoring territory, and his run on third-and-23 in the second quarter – plus his fourth-and-1 carry on the next play – was one of the most determined efforts of the season. His block, too, picked up outside pressure to allow Hackenberg to find Chris Godwin for Penn State's second TD. But Barkley's 103 yards today weren't even close to being enough to help steer the Lions' fate. GRADE A RECEIVERS DaeSean Hamilton and Chris Godwin gave A-plus efforts, not only in totaling a combined 19 catches for 187 yards, but also in downfield blocking. Kyle Carter's fumble, however, which Michigan State scooped up and turned into a score toward the end of the second quarter, killed any momentum PSU might have had early in the game, and it was unable to recover. GRADE B OFFENSIVE LINE Three penalties on this unit in the first half were among the reasons why some of PSU's more successful drives were stymied. The line helped lift Barkley to 86 first-half yards, but whenever the offense ad- vanced near the goal line, the push was nonexistent. And as has been the story for the past two seasons, the pass rush was in Hackenberg's face on seemingly each of his 39 passes. GRADE F DEFENSIVE LINE Forced to reshuffle without Garrett Sickels and Carl Nassib (who started the game but was removed after the first series) this unit under- performed in comparison to the stan- dard it set for itself over the past two seasons. Michigan State rushed for a total of 188 yards, many of which came after initial contact, and Penn State failed to sack the quarterback even once. GRADE D LINEBACKERS Offenses have found success against Penn State in the middle of the field most of the season, and that again was the case at Michigan State. Not only were the linebackers often out of position in the passing game, but Penn State allowed the Spartans to aver- age about 5 yards per carry. GRADE D DEFENSIVE BACKS The secondary got picked apart on Michigan State's opening 80-yard drive, including the first TD pass over top of Marcus Allen, and then again on the opening drive of the second half. The two half-opening drives were representative of the strug- gles that this unit had the entire day in allowing Connor Cook to throw for 248 yards and three touchdowns. Playing his final regular-season game at Michi- gan State, Cook averaged 13 yards per completion. GRADE F SPECIAL TEAMS The Nittany Lions' kickoffs were lofted so high and short that they looked like punts, and de- spite Daniel Pasquariello's punt aver- age of 46.7 yards – a decent showing – there were just too many instances in which Penn State had to defend a short field. Then Koa Farmer's fum- bled kick return in the fourth quarter was just another blow that piled on the rest. GRADE D COACHES The play-calling appeared to be effective on the first few drives, with the help of strong runs from Barkley. But when the offense was on MSU's 1-yard line at the end of the third drive, PSU opted to throw twice in a row before settling for a field goal, which seemed conservative. From what the television cameras caught, too, there appeared to be some bicker- ing both on the sideline and on the field in the second half as the game was getting out of hand. From there, the game completely unraveled, and that, more than anything, is on the coaches. GRADE F CROWD The announced crowd of 74,700 at Spartan Stadium quieted in the third quarter, but that was because Michigan State had this one in its grips from the first quarter on. GRADE B N O V E M B E R 2 8 , 2 0 1 5 B L U E W H I T E O N L I N E . c O M 10 T I M   O W E N | O W E N . T I M . B W I @ G M A I L . c O M STRONG EFFORT Penn State re- ceivers Hamilton (left) and Godwin had big after- noons against the Spartans, but there were also some costly mis- takes in the pass- ing game. Photo by Steve Manuel

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